George Whtifield, the QB coach preparing Winston for the draft, told The Big Lead the photo was taken in mid-January, and, no, Winston does not have a gut. Maybe it was a bad angle. Maybe it was that leash around his waist. Winston will be at the NFL Combine this week.

While the NBA All-Star festivities are underway in New York this weekend, some more weighty affairs may occur in league front offices. The trade deadline is February 19, or just six days away, and there are still some major pieces potentially in play.

Amar’e Stoudemire

The New York Knicks’ beleaguered big man is taking baths in red wine and seeking a buyout from Phil Jackson’s disastrous club. The Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers and Stoudemire’s former Phoenix Suns team are all said to be in the mix for his services, with Phoenix in the lead.

Reggie Jackson

The writing’s been on the wall for Jackson and the Oklahoma City Thunder, even since before OKC traded for ostensible Jackson replacement Dion Waiters. Jackson’s list of suitors is a little small, since he’ll be available in free agency this summer, so he could be viewed as a costly rental. But the Thunder seem to know they’ll lose him now or then, as it’s no secret that he’s unhappy coming off their bench. So they’d be wise to get a return on Reggie.

Arron Afflalo and Wilson Chandler

When the Denver Nuggets traded Timogey Mozgov — now thriving with LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers — it was seen as a potential white flag and ensuing fire sale from the Rockies franchise. Afflalo is a very useful two-way guard, while Chandler is dangerous at perhaps the NBA’s least deep position — small forward. The Portland Trail Blazers, Chicago Bulls, Sacramento Kings, Miami Heat and Clippers are all said to be interested in these two.

Ray Allen

After putzing about in semi-retirement for the season, Jesus Shuttlesworth is now making his decision about which team deserves his shooting services. He’s said to have whittled his list down to the Golden State Warriors, Cavs, and Atlanta Hawks. We may see him making gigantic playoff shots in crunch time, once again.

The 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season revs up with the Daytona 500 on Feb. 22. Here's how each team stacks up as the race to get into the Chase and for a shot at the Sprint Cup championship will begin anew in less than two weeks.

1. Hendrick Motorsports

Team owner Rick Hendrick admitted that it was painful to arrive at the 2014 season finale in Homestead-Miami Speedway without a single driver remaining in the Championship 4 vying for the title, even though he began the Chase for the Sprint Cup with all four of his Chevrolet drivers in the hunt.

“I can’t remember coming down here when we weren’t in it,” Hendrick said at the time. “But hey, it’s racing, and we’ve still had a good year.”

Indeed, they did. Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. won four races apiece, and Kasey Kahne won one to give HMS a total of 13 on the season. No other organization registered more.

But let’s face it. Hendrick is in this to win championships. You can bet his teams will do a better job of making sure they get to the final race with a shot to do so next season — and it likely will start with Johnson and crew chief Chad Knaus, who again will attempt to make history by winning what would be a record-tying seventh championship (the same as NASCAR Hall of Famers Richard Petty and the late Dale Earnhardt). They were embarrassed by their performance in the Chase in 2014.

Two teams will have new crew chiefs in 2015, with Keith Rodden replacing Kenny Francis atop Kahne’s pit box and Greg Ives taking over for Steve Letarte on Earnhardt Jr.’s team, as Letarte heads to his new job as a NASCAR analyst for NBC.

2. Team Penske

Team Penske fell short of winning a championship in 2014. But for a two-team operation with drivers Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski leading the way, it was a mighty impressive season.

Keselowski failed to make the Championship 4 and didn’t make many friends during the Chase for the Sprint Cup, but he won a series-high six races in his No. 2 Ford and led a total of 1,540 laps — second only to champion Kevin Harvick. Logano won five races in his No. 22 Ford, led 993 laps and was in position to contend for the title at Homestead until a late pit-stop snafu cost him that chance.

There is every reason to believe that these two young drivers and their teams, with capable crew chiefs in Paul Wolfe for Keselowski and Todd Gordon for Logano, will be able to build on their success in 2015. They will, in fact, be among the early favorites to contend for the title next season along with the Hendrick group.

3. Joe Gibbs Racing

New driver Carl Edwards could be the key to a rebound season for Joe Gibbs Racing. It’s happened before, and recently. But after Matt Kenseth won a career-high seven races in his first season with JGR and finished second to Jimmie Johnson in the 2013 championship battle, another big year was expected of both Kenseth in particular and the organization in general in 2014.

It never happened. Despite making the Chase again, Kenseth didn’t win a single race all season. Driver Kyle Busch, who won four in 2013, won one. The same was true for Denny Hamlin, although he did heat up enough down the stretch to make the Championship 4, and he was seemingly in position to steal it until a late-race gamble by crew chief Darian Grubb failed to pay off. The bottom line is that Toyota Racing Development needs to be giving JGR’s drivers engines that pack more punch without sacrificing durability. It seemed to be moving in the right direction toward the end of the season, and it’s hard to imagine the team will suffer through another disappointing season in 2015 — especially with Edwards, who left Roush Fenway Racing to come to JGR, added to the fold in a fourth car.

There also has been a major shakeup in JGR’s crew-chief lineup, with Dave Rogers, who had been with Busch, moving to Hamlin’s team; Darian Grubb, who had been with Hamlin, moving to Edwards’ team; and Adam Stevens moving up from JGR’s highly successful Nationwide (now XFINITY) Series program to replace Rogers as Busch’s crew chief. Jason Ratcliff will remain Kenseth’s crew chief.

4. Stewart-Haas Racing

Kevin Harvick won his first Sprint Cup championship in his first season with his new team and new crew chief Rodney Childers, leading a series-high 2,137 laps along the way. Harvick and Childers are the new hot duo in the Sprint Cup garage and would have won three or four more races than the five they did win if not for miscues by the No. 4 pit crew. Assuming those will be fixed — Harvick switched pit crews with Tony Stewart for the Chase — they should contend for another title.

Harvick’s championship gave SHR two titles in the last four seasons, with co-owner/driver Stewart winning it in 2011. And while Stewart had a difficult year as he attempted to return from a badly broken leg and then missed three races after his Sprint car struck and killed a fellow driver in a non-NASCAR-sanctioned event, he’s a good bet to bounce back strong next season without all the distractions. He failed to win a race in 2014 for the first time in 15 seasons.

Kurt Busch, whose future was thrown into a gray area when a former girlfriend accused him of domestic abuse toward the end of last season, was also disappointing overall last season but still won the spring race at Martinsville Speedway to qualify for the Chase. Busch remains a considerable talent behind the wheel if he can get his off-the-track issues in order.

The fourth SHR driver is Danica Patrick, who needs to show improvement after finishing 27th and 28th in points, respectively, in her first two Cup seasons.

5. Richard Childress Racing

Richard Childress Racing started and ended the 2014 season with a bang. It was what happened in between — or failed to happen — that was the problem.

Rookie Austin Dillon, the grandson of team owner Richard Childress, began the season winning the pole for the Daytona 500 in the iconic No. 3 Chevrolet made famous by Dale Earnhardt Sr., which was making its return to the Sprint Cup Series after a 12-year absence following Earnhardt’s death in the 2001 Daytona 500.

Then Ryan Newman, driver of the No. 31 RCR Chevy, nearly pulled off one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport in the Championship 4 season finale at Homestead. Newman ended up finishing second in the race to Kevin Harvick and thus ended up second in the final points standings despite failing to win a race all season and finishing in the top 5 only five times in 36 races.

In between those two big moments, however, RCR’s three teams were actually pretty mediocre, with Paul Menard (21st in points) wheeling the third car. They need to find more speed and consistency in 2015 to keep up with Hendrick Motorsports, Team Penske, Joe Gibbs Racing and Stewart-Haas Racing.

6. Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates

The Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates operation always is a difficult one to figure out.

Since the inception of the Chase in 2004, only one Ganassi driver has qualified to participate (Juan Pablo Montoya in 2009). They failed to do so again in a 2014 season that seems highly disappointing at first glance. Yet a closer look reveals that not only was it exciting on some levels, but it also seems to have laid the groundwork for a promising 2015.

Kyle Larson did not win a race in what was his rookie season, but he finished second three times and third twice to serve notice that he wasn’t your average rookie. He also narrowly missed qualifying for the Chase and is generally recognized in the Sprint Cup garage as having the talent and potential to become one of the next great drivers in the sport.

Larson’s teammate in the two-car operation, Jamie McMurray, won $1 million by capturing the non-points Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May. McMurray also led a respectable 368 laps in points events over the entire season. Both drivers could take off and win multiple races in 2015, although again, it’s hard to say for certain. There have been times in the past when the Ganassi organization just hasn’t been able to transfer positive momentum from one season to the next.

7. Roush Fenway Racing

Roush Fenway Racing had a season to forget in 2014, and then it lost its top driver, Carl Edwards, to a rival organization.

That doesn’t bode well for 2015, when Edwards will be replaced by Trevor Bayne — who hasn’t done much since shocking the racing world by coming out of nowhere to win the 2011 Daytona 500 at age 20.

The two other RFR teams are led by Greg Biffle, who will be 45 years old by the time the green flag drops for the Daytona 500 and has won one race in the last two years, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., a two-time Nationwide Series champion who is more known these days for being Danica Patrick’s boyfriend than he is for doing anything notable in the Sprint Cup Series.

At the heart of the matter is that the organization has been leaking top talent in terms of engineers and other employees to rival teams that offer better deals, and it shows. Sadly, the situation seems likely to get worse before it gets better — especially with a driver lineup that frightens no one (except maybe Jack Roush himself, if he’s really honest about it).

8. Michael Waltrip Racing

As recently as late in the 2013 season, Michael Waltrip Racing appeared to be an organization on the rise.

That no longer appears to be the case after a 2014 season in which MWR scaled back from three full-time Sprint Cup teams to two and failed to win a single race with either of its drivers. Furthermore, neither Clint Bowyer nor Brian Vickers managed to qualify for the 16-driver Chase.

It’s possible that losing top-notch crew chief Rodney Childers to Stewart-Haas Racing, where Childers teamed with driver Kevin Harvick to win the 2014 championship, hurt the organization more than anyone realized it would. Remaining crew chiefs Brian Pattie (Bowyer) and Billy Scott (Vickers) no doubt could have benefited from bouncing data and ideas off a third team headed up by the talented, innovative Childers.

But the real blow can be traced to all the sponsorship money that fled the company in the wake of the 2013 SpinGate scandal triggered by Bowyer’s alleged intentional spin in the final regular-season race at Richmond, which is why MWR had to scale back from three teams to two and lay off 15 percent of its workers prior to 2014. The organization is still reeling from the cutbacks more than a year later.

9. Richard Petty Motorsports

After having driver Aric Almirola make the 2014 Chase and running well for stretches of the season, there is a sense on one hand that RPM has something positive to build on heading into 2015. But Almirola made the Chase by virtue of gambling to win the rain-shortened July race at Daytona International Speedway, so on the other hand there is a sense that luck played a huge role in his locking up a spot in NASCAR’s playoffs.

Then there is the loss of RPM’s other driver, Marcos Ambrose. He decided to return to his native Australia at the end of the 2014 season, and he will be missed, especially on the circuit’s two road-course races where he always was a legitimate threat to win.

The organization’s prospects in 2015 will rest on Ambrose’s replacement, Sam Hornish Jr., and how quickly and how well RPM is able to build a capable team around him. Hornish, a former IndyCar star, struggled while driving full-time in the Cup Series for owner Roger Penske from 2008 through 2010, with only two top-5 and eight top-10 finishes in a total of 106 starts.

10. JTG/Daugherty Racing

Driver AJ Allmendinger’s gritty victory on the road course at Watkins Glen International last August put the single-car JTG/Daugherty team into the 2014 Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Allmendinger is back with the team for 2015, and as long as he’s behind the wheel, the No. 47 team is a threat to win on the two road courses at Sonoma and WGI. In fact, with Marcos Ambrose heading back to Australia and Juan Pablo Montoya already out of NASCAR and back in the IndyCar series, Allmendinger might even now be the favorite to win at both places.

That’s big for this small operation and bears close watching, as one win at either road course means another berth in the Chase.

The team seemed to benefit last season from a switch in manufacturers from Toyota to Chevrolet and by forming a new technical alliance with Richard Childress Racing that included getting its engines from Earnhardt-Childress Racing Technologies and engineering help. Crew chief Brian Burns also will return as crew chief for the No. 47 car, so he and Allmendinger will have a chance to build on what worked and work on what didn’t in 2014.

If they can find a way to improve performance on the oval tracks, they might surprise some people.

Will the real Tony Stewart please stand up? In one corner, there’s the three-time Cup champion and certain Hall of Fame driver. In the other, there’s the guy who went winless for the first time in his career, en route to a nightmare no one could have ever imagined.

Which one will emerge in 2015?

Stewart’s 2014 season will forever be defined by a sprint car race that took place outside the insular world of NASCAR, a race where Stewart struck and killed a fellow competitor, Kevin Ward Jr., who got out of his car to confront him after a spin. Stewart was later cleared of any charges by a grand jury, but the damage wasn’t merely legal, as the events surrounding the accident clearly took an emotional toll on the driver.

Long before that fateful night, though, Stewart was struggling. He missed the last 15 races in 2013 after breaking his leg in a sprint car race and didn’t return until Daytona. That injury and subsequent surgeries presented a difficult obstacle for Stewart as he missed two offseason tests. He also had a new crew chief in Chad Johnston, new teammates in Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch and a new NASCAR rules package to handle. The team had fast cars, but the deck was stacked against him, and poor preparation left him three steps behind out of the gate.

So why should 2015 be any different? Stewart, recovering through his focus on racing, will come into the season as prepared as anyone. Teams won’t have the opportunity to test a new rules package in the offseason, putting them all on an even playing field. His equipment is excellent; the cars are prepared for the Stewart-Haas Racing drivers in-house, so they’re tailor-made to suit their driver/owner. Yes, there’s the question mark of offseason surgery on the leg he injured in 2013, but a spokesman called it “routine maintenance,” and the procedure was performed in early December, plenty early for Stewart to recover.

Johnston is still a bit of a wild card on top of the pit box. He had one win in three seasons with Michael Waltrip Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. and came to SHR with fellow MWR crew chief Rodney Childers, giving the two a leg up on working together. On the other hand, Stewart didn’t perform well with Johnston last year. This season will be the real test.

Stewart’s sponsorship situation is solid, with backers Bass Pro Shops, Mobil 1, Rush Truck Centers and Code 3 Associates set to return. His equipment will be the best available, and it’s equipment that’s taken eight of the last nine titles, including two of those by SHR.

But perhaps the most compelling reason to expect a rebound is Stewart himself. Despite that career-worst 2014 season, he’s still a three-time champion with 48 wins to his name, a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame and one of the best drivers of his era. Despite the setbacks, Stewart still has the talent and drive to win races and put his name in the hat for the title.

Fantasy Stall

Falling star Stewart’s No. 14 team finished 29th and 25th in points in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Though injury and incident were responsible for some of that, the 43-year-old Stewart has showed signs of decline. The biggest is his inability to pass at the quad-ovals on which he has earned seven of his 48 career victories. He scored a below-par adjusted pass efficiency of 45.68 percent at the fast intermediates in 2014.

Not the leader Stewart hasn’t led more than 1,000 laps in a season since 2006. In 2013 and 2014 he led 114 and 125, respectively.

Chasing his unicorn One of the sport’s most talented drivers has yet to win at Darlington, one of its most unique tracks, but he’s been solid there in recent outings. Stewart finished in the top 10 in five of his last eight Darlington attempts.

Denny Hamlin walked into the Joe Gibbs Racing shop in December and noticed a change. As he was meeting with new crew chief Dave Rogers, Hamlin saw that yellow had largely replaced black on the cars and equipment for his No. 11 team. Even the hauler was different.

“I looked at him and said, ‘I guess I’m pretty much driving the No. 18 car,’” Hamlin says. “He said ‘Yeah, pretty much, other than we get to bring your pretty fast pit crew over here.’”

Hamlin won’t actually drive the No. 18 this season — he’s still in the familiar No. 11 Toyota with FedEx as the primary sponsor — but he will be part of a reshuffled program. Hamlin’s former crew chief Darian Grubb has been assigned to lead Carl Edwards’ No. 19 team as JGR expands to four Sprint Cup cars.

“I think it’s a great deal for me, and really Carl is stepping in to a great situation with Darian,” Hamlin says. “I know what he’s capable of doing. (Carl)’s really getting all of my A-team mechanics and everything, so no one got slighted on this deal whatsoever.”

Rogers moves to direct Hamlin after more than five years leading the charge for fellow JGR driver Kyle Busch. This season marks the first time that Hamlin and Rogers will have worked together at the Sprint Cup level — but not the first otherwise. They have previous experience as crew chief and driver for the JGR Nationwide (now XFINITY) Series program.

Rogers worked as Hamlin’s crew chief in NASCAR’s second-tier series during the 2006-07 seasons. Together, they collected five wins, 23 top 5s, 39 top 10 and 12 poles in just 57 combined races. Those were extraordinary numbers for a JGR program that, in 395 starts from 1997-2005, scored just three wins.

For this duo to dominate once again, JGR will need to improve. The organization won twice last season but only once on an intermediate track. Hamlin, despite making two serious championship bids since 2010, believes JGR is still trying to level up to its peers. “We’ve always kind of been that next-tier team, realistically,” Hamlin says. “We can compete for race wins week-in and week-out, but the championships have escaped us through mechanical stuff.”

Hamlin says the team sacrificed speed to fix that last year so now they can race without the worry of a DNF. Now, the focus will be on sharing information, a weak point for Toyota compared to other manufacturers but one JGR hopes to fix with an additional car and more personnel.

It’s been two full seasons since Hamlin, a 24-time winner in the top series, visited Victory Lane more than once in a single season (in a points-paying event). The pairing with new crew chief Rogers and the additional resources brought to the JGR team by Edwards — an elite driver in his own regard — may be the answer needed to change that. If not, the No. 11 team will become an interesting story to watch early. Hamlin’s contract is up following the 2015 season, and he’s arguably the strongest potential free agent. Stay tuned.

Fantasy Stall

Dynamic drafter Hamlin proved to be last season’s most prolific driver at the restrictor plate tracks. At Daytona, he scored wins in the Sprint Unlimited and his Budweiser Duel race, and he finished second and sixth, respectively, in the two points-paying races. He scored his lone points-paying win of 2014 at Talladega.

He takes his talent to South Beach Since 2006, Hamlin has won twice, finished third twice and led 213 laps in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He led 50 laps and averaged a third-place running position in 2014.

Martinsville strength Fans of Hamlin are quick to discuss his ability at Martinsville, but the four-time Martinsville winner hasn’t scored a finish better than fifth since the fall 2010 race. Still, he has managed to lead 272 laps during his seven-race drought.

All-Star weekend comes but once a year — right after the Super Bowl’s been decided, and football’s finally fizzled out. If you’re stuck inside this weekend amidst the snow or otherwise, here’s your catch-all guide to what’s happening in New York City — the sporting event of this February season.

Friday night

Celebrity game, 7 PM ET, ESPN

This goofy game will include entertainers and personalities of all kinds. The roster lists hold the the likes of actors Kevin Hart, Nick Cannon, and Michael Rapaport; Memphis Grizzlies owner Robert Pera — who once challenged Michael Jordan to a round of 1-on-1 — former league stars Chris Mullin and Allan Houston, rapper Common, and Arcade Fire singer Win Butler, among others. Spike Lee and Carmelo Anthony will coach one of the teams, going up against ESPN radio hosts Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg on the opposing bench.

Rising Stars challenge, 9 PM ET, TNT

This year’s rookie/sophmore showcase features an interesting twist — it’ll pit American ballers against those from the rest of the world. And the international squad, in this new generation, is the overwhelming overdog, featuring the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Andrew Wiggins from Canada, his Senegalese teammate Gorgui Dieng, Chicago Bulls forward Nikola Mirotic, Utah Jazz Australian point guard Dante Exum and the sensational Giannis “The Greek Freak” Antetokounmpo, of the Milwaukee Bucks. The U.S.A. roster boasts Zach LaVine and Shabazz Muhammad of the Wolves, Victor Oladipo and Elfrid Payton of the Orlando Magic, and Exum’s Jazz running mate Trey Burke. If last year’s explosive shootout between Tim Hardaway, Jr. and Dion Waiters is any indication, we know that this event can be extremely entertaining.

All-Star Saturday night, 8:30 PM ET, TNT

Event One: Shooting stars challenge

This one is a series of shooting obstacles, with four teams including one NBA All-Star, one legend, and one WNBA star. Russell Westbrook is matched with Penny Hardaway and Tameeka Catchings; Paul Millsap, with Scottie Pippen and Elena Delle Donne; Steph Curry with his father Dell and Sue Bird; Chris Bosh, finally, will compete with Dominique Wilkins and Swin Cash. The deciding sequence of this game ends with its biggest doozy — a half-court shot that must be made to win.

Event Two: Skills challenge

Watch as various NBA stars dart around through glorified cones and test their precision with a combination of dribbling, passing, running and shooting tasks. Mostly assembled from point guards, this season’s collection has the likes of Houston Rockets fireplug Patrick Beverley, a bit of double event duty from Orlando’s Payton, Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroeder of the Atlanta Hawks, Antetokounmpo’s Bucks teammate Brandon Knight, and Toronto Raptors general Kyle Lowry, who will be starting in the main event on Sunday.

Event Three: Three-point contest

This year’s three-point shootout might hold the claim of having the most potent field of shooters ever. The Golden State Warriors’ “Splash Brothers,” Curry and Klay Thompson, fight with Kyle Korver of the Hawks, Curry’s MVP competition in the Rockets’ James Harden, Wesley Matthews of the Portland Trail Blazers, J.J. Redick of the Los Angeles Clippers, Kyrie Irving of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and reigning three-point champion Marco Belinelli of the San Antonio Spurs. May the most accurate marksman win.

Final event: Slam dunk contest

A unique, young group will end the night and try to capture the imagination in a competition that’s been creatively lacking in recent years. Oladipo, Antetokounmpo and LaVine (the prohibitive favorite) will be met by Brooklyn Nets’ center Mason Plumlee. But there’s real hope for fireworks, this year: Read our preview of the dunk contest field here.

Sunday night

NBA All-Star game, 8:30 PM ET, TNT

The main event is a spectacle of sentiment, high-flying dunks, and a defense-is-optional form of basketball that rarely sees either the East or West team score any less than 150 points. See the full rosters for each side here. And if you’re curious about who’s been snubbed from the contest, go here, and have a terrific All-Star weekend.

It seems that each season the debate begins again. Is this Mark Few’s best Gonzaga team? Is this the year Gonzaga finally makes it to the Elite Eight … or Final Four?

Yes, this is Few’s best Gonzaga team, and this is the Gonzaga team that can keep the Madness rolling to Indianapolis. This team is different. This team has star power. This team has depth in the frontcourt and weapons in the backcourt. This team has a great coach. And this team plays exceptional, tougher defense.

This Gonzaga team can break the mold and go to the Final Four. Here are the reasons why:

1. Kevin Pangos

A great college point guard must not only be able to score, but create for his teammates and set the tone defensively. Kevin Pangos does all of that, and then some.

According to KenPom, Pangos is the country’s third-most offensively efficient player (137.8), he’s 11th in true shooting percentage (67.5) and 26th in effective field goal percentage (63.4). But it isn't just Pangos' ability to score, especially from deep, that makes him arguably the nation’s best point guard. His ability to set the tone for the Bulldogs’ second-most efficient offense in the country is nothing short of fantastic, averaging nearly five assists to one turnover per game, and increasing his assist rate to 23.8 from 18.3 in 2014. Pangos’ development over the past four years has been a model in which to build a superstar point guard.

From his junior season to senior season, Pangos has improved his field goal percentage, 3-point percentage and assist rate while lowering his turnover rate. If the Zags want to crack the Sweet 16 code, Pangos’ formula of sharp shooting and offensive productivity could be the solution.

2. Backcourt Depth

The Bulldogs didn’t become the nation’s second-most efficient offense and the WCC’s best defense with just Pangos. No, it takes a team — and this team is loaded.

Gonzaga’s backcourt includes Byron Wesley, a senior swingman and graduate transfer from USC. Wesley is a reliable third option who hits 50 percent from the floor, averaging 11 points, five rebounds and three assists in 27 minutes per game. The Zags also feature another reliable shooting senior to complement Pangos, Gary Bell Jr., who chips in eight points per game to go along with a 40 percent 3-point shooting percentage.

3. Frontcourt Options and Weapons

The Gonzaga frontcourt gives opposing defenses headaches, and not just in the paint. Kentucky transfer Kyle Wiltjer has been a revelation for Gonzaga and is the definition of a stretch four. In his first season in Spokane, Wiltjer has opened up Mark Few’s offense to new levels, posting a 16.4 points per game average while shooting better than 54 percent from the field, 44 percent from deep, 80 percent from the line, all while ranking eighth nationally in offensive efficiency rating (103.2).

Wiltjer has help from his post-up brethren. Seven-foot-one Prezemek Karnowski fits his role perfectly in the Zags high scoring offense. The Polish import scores almost 11 points per game with six rebounds, all while shooting 62 percent from the floor.

The son of former NBA center Arvydas Sabonis, freshman big man Domantas Sabonis has basketball in his genes. The 6-10 forward from Portland has played noticeably well for an 18 year old. Sabonis averages 10 points and seven rebounds off the bench for the Zags, complemented by his 70 percent field goal percentage and high offensive rebounding rate. Sabonis may be a role player on this Zags team, but he has the ability to go off, like he did against Pepperdine when he was 9-of-9 from the floor with 18 points and 12 rebounds, in a two-point win over the Waves on Jan. 15.

4. Defense Wins Championships

We can talk ad nauseam about the Zags’ prolific offensive attack, but as the old adage declares, defense wins championships. Gonzaga has kept teams under 60 points 13 times this season and allows rival offenses just 60.7 points per contest, best in the WCC and 33rd nationally. Efficiency wise, the Bulldogs are a top-tier team. According to KenPom’s defensive efficiency rating, the Zags rank first in the WCC (95.4) and 27th nationally (92.7).

A significant reason Gonzaga excels defensively is their ability to rebound. Gonzaga is first in its conference in preventing second-chance rebounds for opposing offenses and rank second behind BYU in total rebounds, defensive rebounds and rebound rate in the WCC. The Bulldogs get rebounding from all over the court, with four players averaging at least five boards per game. It’s hard to beat a team that doesn’t allow extra possessions for their opponents.

Gonzaga’s offensive arsenal headlined by Pangos and Wiltjer, accompanied by Sabonis, Bell, Wesley and Karnowski gives Few his best team since he has been in Spokane. With a lockdown defense and a little March magic, this could be the Zags team that breaks the spell and stays out after midnight, dancing in the glow of the downtown Indianapolis lights this April.

There’s an old adage in racing that says, “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.” For Kasey Kahne, that motto perfectly sums up his most recent Sprint Cup campaign. Kahne was good, and he had fast cars, but the luck just wasn’t on his side. He failed to finish five races in 2014, all due to crash damage in which he was almost always an innocent victim.

That’s not to say this team didn’t make its own luck; the No. 5 group, even when at its best, never quite hit the standard Hendrick Motorsports is known for. Although Kahne squeezed into the Chase with an eleventh-hour win in Atlanta, he slogged through the postseason and never became a true contender.

But Kahne has several reasons to look forward to 2015. The driver received a real boost when his contract with Hendrick was extended through 2018, putting an end to speculation that young gun Chase Elliott, who won the 2014 Nationwide Series title, would supplant him after this season. The vote of confidence should take some pressure off Kahne and keep him focused on the task at hand.

That’s important, as the mild-mannered Kahne will have to lead his team through a major adjustment. Kenny Francis is out as crew chief, moving on within HMS and ending a nine-year pairing between the two. Of Kahne’s 17 career wins, 16 have come with Francis, leaving the future a bit of an unknown. In for Francis steps Keith Rodden, a former Hendrick engineer who returns to the organization after spending a year with Chip Ganassi Racing and driver Jamie McMurray. Rodden helped McMurray score seven top 5s and 13 top 10s, the driver’s best season totals since 2010. Rodden, used to working with a laid-back personality like Kahne, has the potential to be a perfect fit.

Kahne’s best tracks are the high-speed intermediates that make up the bulk of the schedule, and the speed and durability of his HMS equipment is a combination that’s proven. Kahne hasn’t had a single engine failure since March 2012, and that is a testament to the driver, who can handle a car with finesse.

Kahne has strong backing for 2015, with primary sponsors Farmers Insurance and Great Clips back on board along with Time Warner Cable and Pepsi. LiftMaster also signed on for three races this season, and it’s likely that team owner Rick Hendrick will cover any unsold races with his HendrickCars.com brand.

There’s another weapon in Kahne’s arsenal, and it’s a powerful one — his Hendrick teammates. Hendrick Motorsports is known for maintaining an open-book policy among its four teams, and Jeff Gordon, with whom Kahne shares a race shop, had the best team overall in 2014’s regular season. The teamwork within the organization, which also includes Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr., makes it easy for a driver to play catch-up. Kahne was top 5 in points as recently as 2012 with HMS, and his success on a particular Chase track in each round (Loudon, Charlotte, Phoenix) makes him a true dark horse.

Fantasy Stall

Rodden returns Kahne’s team lost positions during green-flag pit cycles at a high rate. In ’13, then-crew chief Kenny Francis and engineer Keith Rodden gained Kahne 16 positions during such cycles. Without Rodden, who became Jamie McMurray’s crew chief, Francis cost Kahne 30 positions during cycles last year. In 2015, Rodden returns to replace Francis and should keep Kahne moving forward.

Best tracks Kahne was still competitive on his signature tracks last year. He won at Atlanta, finished third at Kansas and led 22 percent of the All-Star Race at Charlotte.

Sleeper pick Kahne’s best average finish per track type last year (9.0) was on road courses. Rodden’s car, with McMurray driving, won the pole and had the highest average running position at Sonoma.

There are two ways to view Ryan Newman’s 2014 season, and both paint a picture of what 2015 could look like as Newman enters his second year driving for Richard Childress Racing. Statistically, it will go down as his best season ever in terms of consistency. Posting a career-best points finish (runner-up), he was just one Kevin Harvick slip away from becoming the Sprint Cup champion. His average finish of 12.7 was also the best of his 13 full seasons as a Cup competitor, as were his impressive 31 lead-lap finishes in 36 starts.

On the other hand, Newman scored only five top-5 finishes; it would have been the worst total for a NASCAR champion since 1949, and it made his appearance in Homestead’s Final Four controversial. He didn’t win a race all season, the first time that’s happened in five years. Newman led just 41 laps all year, ranking just 22nd in Cup in that category, and he never scored a pole, ruining a penchant for qualifying that was once “Rocket Man’s” trademark.

That makes Newman’s season and his future with RCR hard to gauge. Can he become the Chase Cinderella in 2015, or will the reality of being a 10th- to 15th-place car most weeks come back to bite him? Most likely, it will be a little of both. As the veteran of this three-car operation, Newman shouldn’t see his consistency drop off too much. Newman’s not getting the top finishes, but he is finishing races and making the most of his equipment.

Once Newman is in the Chase, he’s shown that he knows exactly how to play the system (see: mind-numbing top-10 finishes). He doesn’t take the risks that other drivers take, limiting rewards, but when the risks caught up with much of the competition, Newman was home free.

Newman will benefit from stability. In 2014, he had to learn to work with a new crew and organization, but the learning curve is now behind him. Newman and underrated crew chief Luke Lambert can concentrate on taking the momentum of their runner-up finish and improving their formula. Newman has stable sponsorship from Caterpillar, Quicken Loans and WIX Filters, so there should be few distractions.

The last piece of the puzzle for Newman is equipment. What RCR lacks in speed within the engine department, it makes up for in durability; exactly one car failed to finish a race due to mechanical failure. The question is whether racing luck can shine with that amount of regularity on one organization once again. Newman also ruffled feathers in the Chase, roughing up Kyle Larson in Phoenix just to advance to the final round and knocking out potential champion Jeff Gordon. One race of bad feelings carrying over is all it takes, especially for a team with such a limited margin for error.

If nothing changes over the winter, Newman and Co. will have to hope that lightning strikes twice. This team, despite having a great driver and crew chief, might not even win a race in 2015. But it has proven it can’t be overlooked, either, because top 10’ing them to death nearly worked in ’14.

Fantasy Stall

Speed on soft intermediates Newman’s valiant effort in the season finale at Homestead resulted in his best finish of the season, but it wasn’t much of a surprise. At soft intermediate tracks — Homestead, Kansas, Kentucky and Chicagoland — he averaged a 7.4-place finish, his best average finish per track type of 2014.

A gainer at Talladega RCR equipment is used to running near the front at Talladega, but Newman’s laid-back strategy also worked in 2014. In the two ’Dega races, Newman finished 23.8 and 11.4 spots better than his average running positions, respectively.

Consistency kills Newman finished in the top 20 a series-high 32 times (88.89 percent of the season) in 2014. That might not mean much for fantasy owners, but the team’s point-padding ways should again put them in Chase contention.

The 2015 NASCAR season is revving up for another wild year. That also means that it's time for a new fantasy NASCAR season, which begs the question: What do I name my team? To help you come up with the funniest, craziest, silliest name possible we put together our 35 favorites for the 2015 season. Here's our list, in no particular order of awesomeness.

In case you haven’t heard, the Los Angeles Lakers are bad. At 13-40, they’re headed for one of their worst bottom lines in franchise history.

Magic Johnson isn’t too thrilled about the decay of his former vehicle for glory, and he’s got a firm idea about who’s to blame: team heir Jim Buss, son to the late Jerry Buss.

"Jim is trying to do it himself and trying to prove to everybody that this was the right decision that [his] dad gave [him] the reins," Johnson said Tuesday on ESPN. "He's not consulting anybody that can help him achieve his goals and dreams to win an NBA championship.”

That includes general manager Mitch Kupchack, as Magic would have it. "If Jim would say, 'OK, Mitch. You run the show,' I think it would be a lot better for the Lakers, too. Mitch Kupchak knows what he's doing. He's great. He's smart. He's hard-working. He's at every practice. I think the fans would feel good [if he ran the team] as well.”

Magic even went so far as to say that if the Lakers strike out in free agency this summer, and fail to bring in a big name next to Kobe Bryant, that the Black Mamba should retire.

There are, of course, 24 million reasons that Kobe probably won’t do that.

But Johnson is right to wonder about the direction of the franchise. The team’s power structure is unclear in this current era, with the maligned Buss son and his sister Jeannie working in some sort of mysterious, and frankly ineffective, tandem with Kupchak.

The good news for the Lakers is that they’re the Lakers. Their brand is still one of the most powerful tools in sports, and the idea of being the star to resurrect their ship is going to appeal to an elite player later, even if it doesn’t now. This embarrassment isn’t built to last.

More than a year removed from “SpinGate” — NASCAR’s biggest controversy in a decade — Clint Bowyer and Michael Waltrip Racing continue to spiral downward in performance. Bowyer’s Toyota team has gone from a runner-up points result in 2012, his peak, to a career-worst 19th-place finish last year.

In fact, Bowyer’s 2014 cumulative results — no wins, five top 5s and 15 top 10s — were the worst he’s recorded in Sprint Cup since 2009.

The warning signs were prevalent as early as last spring. After the ”SpinGate” incident in the fall of 2013 cost the organization millions in sponsorship support, MWR decided to drop from three full-time teams to two. The company line was that streamlining operations was a positive. Instead it just put MWR at a greater disadvantage against the field, competing against four-car teams with twice the money and resources. “You never want to create a storm in any sport or for anybody — any of your peers, your friends, your family, anybody,” Bowyer said during NASCAR’s return to Richmond on September.

But what’s done is done. NAPA, the biggest MWR sponsor lost through the whole ordeal, is now throwing big money at HMS and Chase Elliott. Former teammate Martin Truex Jr. is gone, driving for the No. 78 team at Furniture Row Racing. Left behind are Brian Vickers and Bowyer, whose PR image slowly recovered — but not his on-track results. He went winless for a second straight season, led just 109 laps and posted five DNFs, a shocking number for a driver who once went two-plus years without one.

MWR remains a two-car team, staying the course with Bowyer and Vickers in the No. 55. They’ll start 2015 with a clean slate and decidedly less offseason strife to get in the way of research and development.

“We’ve got to figure out how to collectively get better with both cars,” Bowyer said in November. “We’ve got a lot of areas that we can improve on. It’s easy to point fingers on a lot of big areas, but in all honesty, in this sport and in this garage, it’s the little things that make up the difference.”

Those “little things” were what bit Bowyer at the worst possible moments. An ill-timed pit road mistake knocked him out of contention at Martinsville in the spring, costing him a win and an entry into the Chase. Then, a broken shifter ruined a strong run at Atlanta Motor Speedway, ending his hopes to make the postseason on points in early September.

Bowyer and MWR will welcome changes in the Sprint Cup rules packages that will level the playing field and give middle-tier programs a better opportunity to compete.

“The best thing that I can see is a completely different animal,” says Bowyer. “It’s the light at the end of the tunnel, starting from scratch again (this) year with a new car and new rules and everything else.”

What Bowyer needs now is a win — something positive that will finally make him forget his recent struggles.

Fantasy Stall

A viable threat at Talladega Bowyer can weave through restrictor plate traffic with the best of them, evident from his two top-five finishes, after spot gains of 24.4 and 23.0 over his average running position in the two 2014 races.

Richmond favorite A two-time winner at Richmond, Bowyer scored one of his best finishes of the 2014 season there, a third-place result, after averaging a season-best 3.6-place average running position. He finished third or better in three of the last five races at RIR. As long as he can avoid mechanical failure or scandalous team orders, he’s a threat for the win.

Bad luck or just plain bad All of Bowyer’s awful luck or poor outings last season seemed to take place at the quad-oval tracks — Las Vegas, Texas, Charlotte and Atlanta — where he averaged a 26.2-place finish.

Charles Barkley’s always got a lot of words, and a lot of opinions, during TNT broadcasts.

Last night, Houston Rockets’ general manger Daryl Morey wasn't too thrilled with what Chuck was saying. Barkley laid into the Rockets’ defense during a telecast of Houston’s 127-118 victory over the Phoenix Suns, suggesting they were the worst defense in the NBA, or close to it. At the moment, Houston ranks seventh in defensive efficiency, despite 20 missed games from their anchor Dwight Howard. So Morey is more than entitled to get a little — pun intended — defensive:

Best part of being at a TNT game live is it is easy to avoid Charles spewing misinformed biased vitriol disguised as entertainment

Barkley, of course, was not without response in the post-game show. He fired back with many not-nice words, including:

-“Just because you’ve got good stats doesn’t mean you’re a good team defensively. They’re not a good defensive team.”

-“I’m not worried about Daryl Morey, he’s one of those idiots who believes in analytics… I’ve always believed analytics was crap, and you know I never mention the Rockets as legitimate contenders, because they’re not. And, listen, I wouldn’t know Daryl Morey if he walked in this room right now.”

-“Analytics don’t work at all. It’s just some crap that some people who are really smart made up to try to get into the game, because they have no talent. So smart guys wanted to fit in, so they made up a term called ‘analytics.’ Analytics don’t work… the NBA is about talent. All these guys who run these organizations, who talk about analytics, they’ve got one thing in common: They’re a bunch of guys who’ve never played the game, and they never got the girls in high school, and they just want to get in the game.”

Here’s the full video of Barkley’s manifesto against the game’s analyst. Let’s look forward to the continued war between calculators and gladiators:

Former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian spoke with Athlon Sports Monthly and CBSSports.com college basketball columnist Gary Parrish in an exclusive March 2011 interview, detailing his career, his thoughts on current coaches and his bouts with the NCAA.

Tarkanian died in Las Vegas on Wednesday, leaving one of the most compelling legacies in college athletics. He was 84. Tarkanian finished his career with the 1990 national championship, four Final Fours and 761 career wins. His feuds with the NCAA, including a Supreme Court case in 1988, were just as historic.

What follows is Tarkanian’s interview for Athlon Sports from 2011.

***

I was a teenager — a young teenager — living in the Central Time Zone in the late 1980s/early 1990s, which means I loved Guns N’ Roses, the Sega Genesis and staying up late to watch Jerry Tarkanian’s UNLV Runnin’ Rebels destroy overwhelmed opponents. They sprinted. They dunked. They made college basketball fun — and, yes, controversial. Every Final Four seemed to bring an investigation, which makes it tough to determine, even all these years later, whether Tarkanian is more proud of his success or bitter about the NCAA.

Here is what Tark had to say.

Athlon Sports: HBO Sports did a documentary on the peak of your career called “Runnin’ Rebels of UNLV” that recently debuted and is airing all month. I know you saw an advanced screening of the hour-long program at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas back in February. What did you think?

Jerry Tarkanian: The parts on me were really good. I just thought they went too easy on the NCAA. But that’s because I’m so bitter about them.

You are, clearly. I’ve talked to friends of yours about that. They’ve told you, at this point, to try to let it all go, haven’t they?

Yes, they have.

But letting it go is hard?

It’s very hard. You can’t believe what I went through with them.

You’re 80 years old and a college basketball icon. Your record as a head coach at the collegiate level was 729–201. You have a national championship. And yet that’s not what most people think about first when they think about you. The first thing that comes to mind for most people when the name Jerry Tarkanian is mentioned — if we’re playing word-association here — is your battles with the NCAA. So what you went through with them at least somewhat defines you and undeniably still hangs over you, which means what you went through with them is something you still deal with today.

Absolutely. I was investigated by the NCAA three different times — more times than anybody in the history of sports, probably. And every time, the NCAA itself said there were no major violations. No major violations. And yet I was hammered by the NCAA and by the media. Hammered. So it’s very hard to let it all go. Very hard. But I don’t want to talk about that anymore.

Then let’s talk about the Basketball Hall of Fame. By any measuring stick, your numbers suggest you should be in. Yes, you had NCAA issues. But, like you said, none of your programs — not Long Beach State, not UNLV, not Fresno State — was ever found to have committed major violations. People can debate what that means, and they do. But when you say you were never found to have committed major violations, that is a true statement. And yet you’re not in the Hall of Fame while Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun — a man whose program has committed major violations, a man whose program is currently on probation — is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. When I tell you that, does it bother you?

I’ve learned to move on from that.

College basketball today. How much of it do you still watch?

I watch it all the time. All the time. Almost every night.

When you see coaches playing at a slow pace, does it drive you nuts? Not many teams score the way your teams used to score.

I pretty much played a slowed-down game my first 11 or 12 years as a head coach. But then I went to a running game, and I loved it. It was fun because our guys played so hard and worked so hard, and we played an exciting brand of basketball. You know, there have been some really good teams that have come through — like the Michigan teams with Chris Webber and Jalen Rose. But I think we were better than most of those teams. We were so good defensively, and we just fit together so good. Our guys played so unselfishly. We led the nation in field goal percentage, and we were not a good shooting team. If you look at our players, Stacey Augmon was not a great shooter. Greg Anthony was not a great shooter. The only one who was a really good shooter was Anderson Hunt. But we still led the nation in field goal percentage.

You mentioned Greg Anthony, who is the most visible product from your great UNLV teams all these years later as a basketball analyst for CBS. Are you surprised he’s turned into what he’s turned into?

I knew Greg could do whatever he wanted to do. He was always very intelligent and very articulate. He was self-driven.

I must know, in your opinion, should Greg really have been fouled out of that classic game against Duke — the loss in the 1991 national semifinals that prevented you from being back-to-back national champions?

We went through the tape of that game, and three of his five fouls were phantom calls. He should’ve had two fouls in that game. I’ve never made excuses. But there’s no doubt that’s what happened.

What about Larry Johnson? He was the star of those great UNLV teams — the No. 1 pick of the 1991 NBA Draft. Do you still keep in touch with Larry?

I see Larry all the time. He’s here in (Las Vegas). He drove me to the UNLV game (against Wyoming at the end of February). I see Larry a lot.

Back on the subject of the NCAA. I know you despise the organization as it was and as it is. But let me ask you this: Is the NCAA fixable? Could the right person fix it?

Yeah, I think they probably could, and I do think they’ve made great progress since my battles. When I had my battles, they didn’t have any evidence of any kind, and they didn’t need any. They would just have notes that they took from an interview, but nobody even knew if the notes were accurate. They weren’t signed or anything. The investigator would just say, “I talked to this person, and this is what he told me.” Nobody ever signed a statement under oath. But the infractions committee would just say they were telling the truth. But I don’t even want to talk about them anymore. It just upsets me.

If you had to hire a coach to run your college basketball program, whom would you hire?

My favorite guy is Bobby Huggins. I love Mike Krzyzewski, too. And I’ve for years said Roy Williams is a great, great coach. And I love Bill Self right now. I love Bill.

I’ve seen you interact with most of those guys at the Final Four and other places, and I know they all think highly of you. They love being around you, listening to you tell stories. What’s it like to be so revered by current coaches? You are a legend to many of them.

It’s really nice. I have a radio show one night a week during basketball season, and I have every one of the top coaches on my show. I’ve had Self. I’ve had Krzyzewski. I’ve had Jay Wright. Every one of them, they come on.

John Calipari?

John comes on my show all the time, too. John and I are very good friends. I think he’s without a doubt the top recruiter, maybe ever. I’ve never seen a coach get as many great players as John gets every year. I like John.

As you know, he’s the guy most fans compare to you because he’s had his share of battles with the NCAA, too. Have you ever talked with John about that?

We’ve talked about that some. You know, he feels like the NCAA picked on him, too. But not to the extent they picked on me.

Kurt Busch is a little like cracking open a fortune cookie — you never know what you’re going to find inside. The 2014 season was a wild roller-coaster ride for the driver who joined Stewart-Haas Racing after spending two seasons in relative exile with single-car teams following his release by Team Penske. When Busch was good in 2014, he was very good, as evidenced by his spring Martinsville win, where he outdrove Jimmie Johnson, owner of eight Martinsville grandfather clocks, in the closing laps for the victory. He posted top finishes at several of the sport’s toughest tracks, including Pocono, Daytona, Bristol and Watkins Glen.

But when Busch was bad, he was horrid. Collecting more finishes of 28th or worse than he had top 10s, Busch finished in the back 15 a dozen times. He failed to finish altogether six times, matching his number of top-5 finishes. His average finish was a lowly 18.9, and he’d have missed the Chase entirely if not for that Martinsville win. There was no one factor to pinpoint; there were mechanical failures, crashes, pit mistakes and sometimes simple bad luck. It wasn’t something that the team could easily fix.

But there’s also no good reason why Busch should be condemned to repeat last season’s struggles. He has all the resources a successful team needs and is an immensely talented driver when focused. With limited practice and no prior experience, Busch scored a top 10 in the Indianapolis 500. The man has long been capable of winning races, but, at some point, he needs to find a way to make his own luck.

In a surprise late-season move, SHR chose to swap crew chiefs between the teams of Busch and Danica Patrick, sending veteran Tony Gibson to Busch’s camp. Busch performed well in his limited time with Gibson, posting two top 10s in three races with his new crew chief at the helm. If the pairing continues to be successful, it could spur a turnaround for Busch, who has steady backing from Haas Automation, the multi-million-dollar business owned by team co-owner Gene Haas. Busch is a proven asset at SHR, and he has worked well with his three teammates despite early speculation that there were too many tempers to make a cohesive team.

There is, however, a cloud of uncertainty surrounding Busch. In November, he was accused of domestic violence by his ex-girlfriend, and the outcome of any legal proceedings could impact both the driver’s future with SHR and in the sport. NASCAR could elect to suspend Busch for one or more races, which would render him ineligible for the Chase, or the governing body could even force his release from SHR. Busch has burned enough bridges in his career that it could be difficult for him to find another top ride.

Provided Busch runs the entire season, there’s no reason he can’t win races and build championship-type consistency. Distractions appear to be a problem, though, and have made keeping his job — not winning a NASCAR title — the short-term priority.

Fantasy Stall

Don’t trust Martinsville Busch’s lone win in 2014 came at Martinsville, but that was an apparent aberration considering his recent performances at the facility. Prior to his win, his most recent top-5 finish there had come in 2004.

Not much of a leader Unlike his brother Kyle, Busch doesn’t pad his laps-led tally. He has never, in his 15-year Cup Series career, led more than 1,000 laps in a season. He led 687 laps combined over the last three years.

Karl will take over for Ty Corbin, who took over for Mike Malone. Karl will be the team’s third coach this season, and the fifth coach in the five years of über-talented center DeMarcus Cousins’ career.

The deal in place between Karl, who has 1,131 wins over 27 years as a head coach, has been a rumored possibility since Malone was fired, but it picked up more steam last week when the Orlando Magic fired Jacque Vaughn. When the potential job market for Karl doubled, Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro — with whom Karl has experience from their time together with the Denver Nuggets — got to work.

Karl has coached a variety of styles, but has never led an offense with a centerpiece like Cousins. In his time the with Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks, Seattle SuperSonics, Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, he has gained a reputation as an uptempo offensive guru who’s happy to boast rotations with an abundance of guards.

His fit with Cousins, thus, seems slightly dubious — but Karl’s style has also been a consequence of his personnel. It’ll be fascinating to see how he adjusts to the possibilities Cousins presents, and how he utilizes one of the more tantalizing talents in the league.

More important than anything for Sacramento, though, is that they empower Karl, as they failed to do with Malone or Corbin. Without continuity, stability, or sanity, this franchise isn’t going anywhere. While it remains to be seen what kind of fit Karl is with Cousins, Rudy Gay, Ben McLemore and the rest of the Kings core, the pieces do seem to be in place for some serious growth. Now the organization just needs to learn some patience, stand back, stop meddling, and let it happen.

It would have been easy for Jamie McMurray to exit last season frustrated. Despite having a strong car early in many races, his No. 1 Chevrolet rarely finished where he felt it could. The team’s only winning outing came in the exhibition, non-points All-Star Race in May.

“When I look at some of the guys that made the Chase, I think we outran them in 95 percent of the races,” McMurray says. “They were able to be there at the end, whether it was good pit strategy or a (strong) restart. Whatever they did, they were just able to get a better finish.”

McMurray scored the 10th-best mid-race running position in the series (13.8). Leading a career-high 368 laps, he wound up 18th in the final standings but would have been 11th without the Chase, after a late-season surge that came far too late to make the playoff. That success has McMurray optimistic heading into 2015.

“I’ve been here long enough that I’ve seen the ups and downs,” McMurray says. “As far as our success last year, everything is pretty ‘scienced’ out. There’s a reason why we’ve done this, or a reason why we’ve not done that. It’s not just kind of a shoot-from-the-hip and see what happens.”

That knowledge and speed have McMurray, the Daytona 500 winner in 2010, confident that the No. 1 team can take the next step. Of the drivers who have run every season since the Chase’s inception in 2004, he remains the only full-timer not to make a single postseason field. “Speed-wise, I feel like we’re more than capable,” McMurray says. “It will just be about being a little more consistent.”

To do that, McMurray needs to learn how to close. It’s not just bad luck, like he had at the restrictor plate tracks in 2014. He scored zero top-10s at the plate races — his strongest tracks — often caught up in someone else’s mess. Many of his problems came late in events, like a Bristol race he dominated before a bad handling adjustment had him falling to eighth. Pit problems, flat tires, poor restarts — you name it, McMurray or his team knew how to foul it up in the final 100 laps. He ranked a disappointing 55th out of 73 drivers in NASCAR’s list of “Closers,” positions gained or lost in the last 10 percent of each race.

One aspect that won’t be the same for McMurray this season is the crew chief role. Keith Rodden returned to Hendrick Motorsports this year after just a single season on the job, jumping at the chance to return to HMS and run point for Kasey Kahne. (It’s notable that HMS now gives CGR engine support and information that have made them a de facto satellite operation.) McMurray’s team will now be led by Matt McCall, also a first-time crew chief who worked as lead engineer on Ryan Newman’s No. 31 last season.

“When things are going well at the end of the year, you don’t want it to end,” McMurray says. “You just never know how it’s going to start back off in February. But I probably feel better going into (this season) than I have in a while.”

Wheeling a car that feels comfortable and turns well is the goal of every driver. But that car also has to be fast. When a comfortable setup feels perfect, yet falls mid-pack or worse on the speed charts, the process to find speed becomes maddening. Welcome to Greg Biffle’s life at Roush Fenway Racing.

“It’s painfully obvious that we’ve been way off as an organization, not as a team,” Biffle says. “There’s a lot of times we go and look at the speed chart and our car is the fastest of the (RFR) group in 18th. That’s not worth ringing the bell on the back of the hauler.”

The reality of the struggle goes deeper than just a bad setup, Biffle says. Fundamental car design issues have RFR behind before they even get to the track.

“I’ve been telling the team guys,” Biff says, “and I’m convinced of this: NASCAR could cover every car at the track for five days — send everybody else home while we test. On the next weekend, we could go race and we would be better — don’t get me wrong — but we still wouldn’t be as fast as those top-5 cars.”

Ouch. What else is there to say?

There’s little hiding the fact that Biffle and the rest of RFR’s typically proud Ford operation woefully underperformed last season. Biffle made the Chase on points but was knocked out in Round 1 and was so uncompetitive that his No. 16 might as well have been invisible.

“It’s just not where we run as a company,” Biffle says. “We’re used to at least one of our cars being in the top 10, the top 5, leading laps every week. We never even led laps (last) year, really.”

That’s not entirely true, as Carl Edwards won twice and made the Round of 8 in the Chase. He’s no longer around for 2015, replaced by an inexperienced Trevor Bayne as the team starts rebuilding in multiple ways. For those who remain, trying to understand why the RFR Fords lack speed has become exasperating.

“Is it the drivers? It doesn’t look like it,” Biffle says. “Is it the crew chiefs? Is it the engine? Well, the Penske cars have the same engine and they aren’t missing. We aren’t breaking, not having any mechanical failures. What is it?”

At least the driver, who signed a multi-year contract extension in 2014 (joining up with new sponsor Ortho), is willing to stick around and find the answer, paired up with a fresh group of engineers. Leading the RFR newcomers for 2015 is Mark McArdle, the former technical head of Richard Childress Racing and Furniture Row. The industry veteran has a tough task ahead of him; according to Biffle, the team has tried every spring and shock combination on the car that RFR has used in the past 10 years. It’s produced little.

“We need to continue to try and figure out where our deficiency is,” Biffle says. “We know it’s aero. We know it’s maybe chassis. We know it could be some setup stuff. Are we going to fix it in three months? No. But, we’ve got to get it going the right direction.”

Spring training is just around the corner, but the college ranks get a jumpstart on MLB with their season getting underway on Friday. Defending College World Series champion Vanderbilt leads off Athlon Sports' preseason Top 25.

1. Vanderbilt (51–21, 17–13 SEC)

Do you like sequels? Well, this could be your year with the Commodores. The frontline pitching is a who’s who of future first-round MLB picks in righties Carson Fulmer (7–1, 1.98), Walker Buehler (12–2, 2.64) and Tyler Ferguson (8–4, 2.69). Sophomores Hayden Stone (4–0, 1.71) and John Kilichowski (0–0, 1.57) will head the bullpen corps. Seven returning starters include top hitters Bryan Reynolds (.338, 14 SBs) and Dansby Swanson (.333, 22 SBs).

2. TCU (48–18, 17–7 Big 12)

Despite losing World Series pitcher Brandon Finnegan — last seen doing some work for the Royals in the “other” World Series — the Frogs are well armed for another Omaha run. Preston Morrison (9–4, 1.32) and Tyler Alexander (10–3, 2.36) return to weekend duty and have flame-throwing Riley Ferrell (15 saves) to back them. Top hitter Garrett Crain (.324) joins solid infielders Keaton Jones (.265) and Derek Odell (.264). Also watch for incoming C Evan Skoug and Georgia Tech transfer Elliott Barzilli.

3. Virginia (53–16, 22–8 ACC)

Yep, those Wahoo sightings in Omaha will continue, especially with all three weekend starters back on the mound in Nathan Kirby (9–3, 2.06, 112 Ks), Brandon Waddell (10–3, 2.45) and Josh Sborz (6–4, 2.92). After losing flamethrowing closer Nick Howard, some bullpen re-tooling will be necessary, but the defense will be solid with 3B Kenny Towns (.278) and SS Daniel Pinero (.261). Offensively, top hitter John La Prise (.348) and Joe McCarthy (.301) wield lethal sticks.

4. Oklahoma State (48–18, 18–6 Big 12)

The Pokes have their guns up for a reason this year. The pitching staff returns 54 starts and a fleet of relievers, including Jon Perrin (8–5, 2.38), Blake Battenfield (4–0, 1.69) and Tyler Buffett (2–1, 2.95). If lefties Garrett Williams (4–1, 5.40) and Tyler Nurdin (4–3, 6.54) pitch to potential, look out. Offensively, C Gage Green (.310, 20 SBs) and SS Donnie Walton (.310) will lead a capable attack. Josh Holliday has built his alma mater into a national power in just a few short years.

5. North Carolina (35–27, 15–15 ACC)

Coach Mike Fox must be chomping at the bit to get 2015 started. Pitchers Trent Thornton (7–4, 2.73), Benton Moss (4–2, 3.62) and Zac Gallen (5–4, 4.64) combined for 46 starts a year ago. Not only that, but most of the bullpen returns as well. The offense needs a kick of adrenaline as Landon Lassiter (.305) and Wood Myers (.298) hope that Skye Bolt (.257) reverts to form.

6. South Carolina (44–18, 18–12 SEC)

Oh sure, some familiar names are gone — like Pankake, Greiner, English, Montgomery and Seddon. But seven pitchers with a sub-3.00 ERA and seven bats in the order return. Wil Crowe (8–3, 2.75) and Jack Wynkoop (7–6, 2.86) are solid weekend arms. 1B Kyle Martin (.336-5-36) is back despite getting drafted last summer and will join 2B Max Schrock (.299-5-20) and OF Connor Bright (.311) to wreak havoc.

7. UCLA (25–30–1, 12–18 Pac-12)

The Bruins are the Wall Street of college baseball — up, down and unpredictable. But they’ll have their entire weekend rotation back, led by junior James Kaprielian (7–6, 2.29) and All-America reliever David Berg (132 career apps, 36 saves), who turned down the Rangers as a 17th-round draft pick. Experienced stalwarts like OF Eric Filia and 3B Kevin Kramer return after missing all of last season.

8. Arizona State (33–24, 19–11 Pac-12)

Tracy Smith, the Indiana mastermind, comes to the desert and inherits a deep cupboard of talent. All three weekend starters are back on the mound, including lefty juniors Brett Lilek (4–5, 2.68) and Ryan Kellogg (8–3, 3.76), and fireballing bullpen stud Ryan Burr (3–3, 3.27, 12 saves) will back them. Last year’s youthful batting order has seven starters back.

9. Florida (40–23, 21–9 SEC)

Remember that outstanding freshman class from last year? Well, coach Kevin O’Sullivan has set their dials to “dominate” in 2015. Of the top 10 returning pitchers, six of them are sophomores, including ace Logan Shore (7–4, 2.16), A.J. Puk (5–2, 3.19) and relief specialist Kirby Snead (3–0, 2.40). Speedsters like CF Harrison Bader (.337, 13 SBs) and SS Richie Martin (.265, 18 SBs) are among seven returning fielders.

10. Louisville (50–17, 19–5 AAC)

Dan McDonnell’s troops have become Omaha veterans. He’ll have All-America candidates in Kyle Funkhouser (13–3, 1.94) and Anthony Kidston (9–1, 3.40) in the rotation, along with Josh Rogers (3–3, 3.63), who started in the postseason. Double-play combo Zach Lucas (.270) and Sutton Whiting (37 SBs) will team with OF Corey Ray (.325) to wreak havoc on the basepaths.

11. Houston (48–18, 14–9 AAC)

This is a dangerous team. A few roles need to be filled in the bullpen, but beyond that, all three weekend starters are back, led by All-America candidates Aaron Garza (9–5, 2.92) and Jake Lemoine (6–8, 2.87). Leadoff hitter Kyle Survance (.308, 31 SBs) is one of the most exciting players in the country and teams with Justin Montemayor (.298) for a good one-two offensive punch.

12. Texas Tech (45–21, 14–10 Big 12)

Tim Tadlock has something special brewing in the panhandle. His Raiders return their two wins leaders in LHPs Dylan Dusek (8–0, 1.94) and Cameron Smith (8–3, 2.79) and 11 of their 16 saves in the bullpen. Plus, Quinn Carpenter brings his mid-90s heat to campus. Tech features the best infield in the country with SS Tim Proudfoot (.309) and 2B Bryant Burleson (.272).

13. LSU (46–16–1, 17–11–1 SEC)

The Tigers lost their ace in Aaron Nola, but don’t shed too many tears for the boys on the Bayou — they still have All-Americans in SS Alex Bregman (.316-6-47) and OF Andrew Stevenson (.335), plus rising sophomore pitchers Jared Poché (9–3, 2.45), Parker Bugg (2–2, 2.75) and Alden Cartwright (1–1, 2.41). The No. 1-ranked recruiting class will keep the Tigers chugging along.

14. Rice (42–20, 23–7 C-USA)

It’s an ominous sign for opposing batters when Wayne Graham has a stocked staff. Junior lefties Blake Fox (12–0, 1.46) and Kevin McCanna (8–3, 2.69) will team with All-C-USA flinger Jordan Stephens (8–4, 2.43 in 2013), who missed nearly all of 2014. The offense loses four of the top five hitters, but seniors John Clay Reeves (.317) and Ford Stainback (.258) are experienced leaders.

15. Nebraska (41–21, 18–6 Big Ten)

Nothing makes a coach smile like experience. Darin Erstad has a senior-heavy team for 2015, including returning pitchers Chance Sinclair (9–1, 2.15), Kyle Kubat (5–2, 4.55) and Josh Roeder (12 saves) and top hitters Blake Headley (.323) and Tanner Lubach (.282). Also watch for a pair of dynamos in OF Ryan Boldt (.311) and SS Wes Edington, who missed 2014 with an injury.

16. Stanford (35–26, 16–14 Pac-12)

Try to look surprised, but the Cardinal will again feature numerous blue-ribbon hurlers. A full 100 percent of last year’s starts and 90 percent of their innings pitched from last year come back, led by sophomores Cal Quantrill (7–5, 2.68), Brett Hanewich (4–4, 3.17) and Chris Viall (2–3, 4.74), along with wins leader John Hochstatter (10–3, 3.36). Only three returning starters are behind them, but the No. 8-ranked incoming class will help.

17. Mississippi State (39–24, 18–12 SEC)

The Bulldogs hit a few bumps in the road a year ago but look like they’re back to contender status now. Buoying their hopes are returning senior starters Ross Mitchell (8–5, 2.53) and Trevor Fitts (5–3, 2.58), who have the potential to dominate on the mound. 1B Wes Rea (.245-5-41), OF Jake Vickerson (.264, 11 SBs) and Seth Heck (.299) all need to play to their potential for this team to excel.

18. Loyola Marymount (32–24, 17–10 WCC)

Yes it’s true — the hearts of the Lions will be big this year. The pitching staff got a few shots of adrenaline as third-round MLB draftee Trevor Megill returns, joining his incoming brother Tylor Megill to provide a pair of lively arms and big bodies. Friday ace Colin Welmon (10–2, 2.37) also returns. Freshmen All-Americans Austin Miller (.374, 25 SBs) and David Fletcher (.329, 17 SBs) were the top two hitters last year.

19. Ole Miss (48–21, 19–11 SEC)

Yes, there were some big losses to the roster, including every .300-plus hitter in the order and staff horse Chris Ellis. But Christian Trent (9–0, 2.05) and Sam Smith (5–4, 3.61) return to the rotation. Power-slugging Sikes Orvis (.294-14-53) will team with J.B. Woodman (.298, 10 SBs) and Errol Robinson (.294) to reload the offense. Watch for slick-fielding freshman Tate Blackman, a 20th-round Brewers draftee.

20. Cal State Fullerton (34–24, 14–10 Big West)

Hopefully the soap opera of 2014 is over. Obviously, without All-America aces Thomas Eshelman (8–3, 1.89) and Justin Garza (5–4, 3.22), the Titans don’t sniff the Top 25. They’ll have to lean heavily on the 10th-ranked recruiting class, which features five drafted players. Keep tabs on SS Tristan Hildebrandt, a 16th-round pick, and OF Scott Hurst, who led the Alaska League in batting (.429) as an incoming freshman.

21. Florida State (43–17, 21–9 ACC)

We don’t usually see the Seminoles this far down, but there was a small exodus from 2014. The offense still has All-American D.J. Stewart (.351-7-50) and mercurial Ben DeLuzio (.281, 16 SBs), but they are the only returnees hitting better than .268. Four-year guys like Mike Compton (7–3, 3.23), Billy Strode (2–1, 2.62) and Bryant Holtmann (5–1, 3.68) will be the building blocks of a retooled pitching staff.

22. Oregon State (45–14, 23–7 Pac-12)

The Beavers need to re-dam the stream and will rely heavily on a top-flight recruiting class that features five drafted players. Andrew Moore (6–5, 2.77) assumes the Friday role and will have Jake Thompson (3–2, 4.25) and Zack Reser (5–0, 1.71) behind him. There will be strength up the middle with CF Jeff Hendrix (.351), C Logan Ice (.250), 2B Caleb Hamilton and SS Trever Morrison.

23. Texas (46–21, 13–11 Big 12)

You may not see a better defensive team, as all five infielders return, led by SS C.J. Hinojosa (.298) and power-stick C Tres Barrera (.261-5-35). The mound is always a Longhorn strength, and getting Parker French (7–5, 2.41) back for his senior season was big. Also keep an eye on relief aces Travis Duke (2–1, 0.29) and Chad Hollingsworth (4–0, 1.15). The freshman class was ranked seventh nationally.

24. Maryland (40–23, 15–14 ACC)

The Terrapins make the move from the ACC to the Big Ten confident and loaded for another postseason run. Most of the arms corps returns, so losing ace Jake Stinnett won’t be hard to overcome. Mike Shawaryn (11–4) and saves ace Kevin Mooney (13 saves) lead a deep, experienced staff. Seven starters are back in the order, led by top bat Brandon Lowe (.348) and Jose Cuas (.279-5-42).

—Written by Eric Sorenson for Athlon Sports. This is just one of the features that can be found in Athlon Sports' 2015 MLB Preview magazine, which is available on newsstands and online now. Starting with 22 unique covers to choose from, Athlon covers the diamond and circles the bases with enough in-depth preseason analysis, predictions and other information to satisfy fans of the national pastime from the Bronx to the Bay and everywhere in between. Order your copy now!

Austin Dillon’s career began with a bang as he brought back the iconic No. 3 car in grand fashion, taking the pole for the Daytona 500. After he finished ninth at Daytona, expectations skyrocketed for a driver many thought would be Rookie of the Year.

The rest of Dillon’s 2014 season? That was spent crashing down to earth. He slumped to 20th in points, missed the Chase and was a distant second for top rookie honors to Kyle Larson, making Dillon one of the year’s massive disappointments.

In his defense, when you bring back a number once synonymous with Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Sr., there’s going to be a certain pressure to perform. For Dillon, the learning curve is steeper than he faced in either the Camping World Truck or Nationwide series, where the 24-year-old won championships. The competition in Cup is both deeper and fiercer; RCR, at this level, is also a small step behind its main rivals in equipment.

But Dillon did a lot of things right last season that set him up to continue to grow in 2015. Perhaps most important, he finished every race, running more laps last season (10,488) than any driver except Jeff Gordon. Bringing the equipment home in one piece is not something every rookie has done, but Dillon was able to do so on a consistent basis, compiling maximum information in the process. That only gives Dillon an edge coming into the new season.

What does he need to do in 2015? The answer is easy enough — turn those top-15 performances, of which the rookie had several, into top-10 results worth writing about. He has all the tools in the box to get it done, starting with RCR equipment that’s some of the most durable in the sport. It’s true that to finish first, a driver must first finish, and Dillon has cars that can do that; RCR had a total of one mechanical failure last year among its three cars. Speed, once the strength of this organization, is now its problem. Earnhardt-Childress racing engines were several miles per hour slower than their counterparts, including former powerplant partner and new Hendrick satellite Chip Ganassi Racing.

Dillon has a lot going for him, though. He has a talented veteran crew chief in Gil Martin, who has almost 20 years of experience in NASCAR’s top division. Martin has 16 wins and six top-5 points finishes on his résumé. The team has some powerhouse sponsors in Dow Chemical, Cheerios and American Ethanol — paired with loyal, smaller backers like Realtree — which provide a strong base. Teammate Ryan Newman found a new level of speed for the organization, and that could easily be filtered down the line.

Overall, Dillon is a solid driver who should continue to develop in 2015. All signs point to slow and steady progress, requiring the patience most athletes don’t get these days. But when your owner is also your grandfather — and he pairs you with an iconic car — you’re going to get every opportunity to make this No. 3 return a success.

Two of the most influential American men of the last quarter century, Barack Obama and Michael Jordan, appear to have entered into a battle of egos.

It all started back in October, when Jordan called POTUS’s golfing skills into question during an interview with Ahmad Rashad. “I never said he wasn’t a great politician,” Jordan said, “I just said he was a s——- golfer.”

Obama was quick to fire back in a subsequent radio interview. ‘There is no doubt that Michael is a better golfer than I am,” he said.” Of course if I was playing twice a day for the last 15 years, then that might not be the case… He might want to spend more time thinking about the Bobcats — or the Hornets.”

It now appears Michael was perhaps not to be outdone, though. As Deadspin notes, a recent New York Magazine profile of trusted Obama advisor David Axelrod reveals that Jordan signed a poster of himself for the president, and misspelled Obama’s first name as “Barrack.”

Either Jordan was tipsy, is a bad speller, or was trying to slight his man a little further — his “you still owe me dinner” line in the signature suggests it’s probably the latter reality.

This evokes the head games Jordan played with one of his all-time greatest victims: Bryon Russell, then of the Utah Jazz, whom M.J. hit his iconic final Chicago Bulls shot against, to seal his sixth NBA championship.

Jordan had previously belittled Russell by repeatedly referring him “Byron” in an interview. There are fewer forms of psychological warfare more effective than taking away a man’s very name — His Airness knows what he’s doing.

Who’s ready for the one-on-one game between Jordan and his president, on the White House lawn?

Telling AJ Allmendinger that things happen for a reason used to get under his skin. The phrase irked him for its simplicity, as he felt there was always more to the story.

The last few years changed his mind.

Allmendinger lost a full-time seat with Penske Racing in the middle of the 2012 season when he failed a NASCAR drug test for taking Adderall without a prescription — a situation he says was a one-time mistake and not a long-term problem. The subsequent suspension and fallout dropped Allmendinger from the high point of his career to rock bottom. The path back to respectability seemed long. “I knew at that point that I had to make some changes,” Allmendinger says. “If (NASCAR) was ever going to happen again, I wanted it to happen the right way.”

In 2014, it happened the right way, and with a surge no one expected. After riding a part-time gig in 2013, Allmendinger took over full-time in the seat of JTG-Daugherty Racing’s No. 47, driving for a one-car team doing its best to throw punches at NASCAR’s behemoths. The organization had struggled before Allmendinger’s arrival, earning only four top-10 finishes in the last three seasons with veteran Bobby Labonte. Allmendinger had some struggles — he drove to just the 25th-best average running position of all full-time drivers — but he got the job done in his last, best chance to earn a spot in NASCAR’s postseason. Besting road course king Marcos Ambrose, Allmendinger earned his first career Cup victory at Watkins Glen in August.

“I love that underdog role. I love the small team,” he says. “We’ve got to go out there and work harder just to compete. It has happened for a reason. I have found a home. I wouldn’t change anything.”

The Chase opportunity didn’t reinvent the No. 47 team — it was out after the first round — but it represented progress. RCR chassis and engine support, new in 2014, paid dividends, along with crew chief Brian Burns. Both are back. Allmendinger, who was signed to a long-term extension with his primary sponsors Clorox and Kimberly-Clark, understands he has a foundation to build from now.

“It’s baby steps,” he says. “It’s great to win a race, but I still look at us in general and know that we were about a 20th-place team. I want to get to be a 15th-place team. I want to get to be a top-10 team. We can get better every weekend, get more competitive.”

Allmendinger includes himself in the discussion of what needs to improve; he’s still inconsistent on the track and learning how to lead a one-car team off it. He knows that this year will still require heavy lifting and some good fortune to earn a second consecutive postseason appearance. “We have a long way to go,” he says. “But we know that if we can go out there and hit our best, we can win any given race.”

Martin Truex Jr. is eager to start 2015 strong and continue the late-season momentum that salvaged an otherwise awful start driving Furniture Row Racing’s No. 78 Chevrolet. “Racing is never harder than when you’re not running good — just everything about it gets magnified,” Truex says. “The relationships get damaged, the confidence gets damaged, and everybody’s in a bad mood. It’s a constant downward spiral, and until you can stop that and turn it around, it’s hard to gain momentum.”

It’s a story Truex lived firsthand during his maiden voyage with this single-car program, his best option after the 2013 Michael Waltrip Racing Richmond debacle resulted in the contraction of MWR from three cars to only two. The cloud seemed to hang over Truex and his new team well into 2014. Right away, Truex blew an engine in the Daytona 500 and showed few signs of positive results until late in the 36-race schedule. The team lacked confidence and struggled to jell, leading a total of one lap all season.

After Truex missed the Chase by well over 100 points — and suffered through a personal nightmare of his longtime girlfriend Sherry Pollex being diagnosed with stage III ovarian cancer — many wondered whether he would even stick around to complete his two-year deal.

Fortunately for both sides, a no-pressure Chase allowed Truex the opportunity to use the postseason races as a testing ground for 2015. Five top-15 finishes in the first five postseason races reminded both sides what this team is capable of; after all, other programs running Richard Childress Racing chassis, like AJ Allmendinger and JTG-Daugherty Racing, won races and ran competitively all season long.

In a surprising move, crew chief Todd Berrier was ousted in early December. Race engineer Cole Pearn earned a promotion, his first crew chief job, as the team hopes a “new school” approach will be the perfect match for NASCAR’s new rules. Hopes are high that the new pairing won’t miss a beat. Pearn, a former RCR employee, should strengthen the ties between the team and its engine and chassis provider.

A tire test at California in the fall instilled hope in Truex after the team tested the new aerodynamic package, one that decreased the height of the rear spoiler and featured other adjustments that added more front turning ability to the car.

Now, Truex must turn to 2015 with an optimistic yet cautious approach in the second and final year of his contract. “Realistically, you can’t expect to go from where we were and be the top title contender,” Truex says. “In the last third of 2014, we were consistently a top-15, close to top-10 car. If we can come out of the box doing that and then continue to improve, I would be happy with that.”

If that doesn’t occur, expect Truex to become one of the sport’s top free agents. Both he and FRR deserve better than the driver’s career-worst 24th-place ranking from a year ago.

A little food for thought: Paul Menard is coming off what could be considered his best career Sprint Cup season. He had career-bests in both top 5s (5) and top 10s (13), and while his points position was his lowest since 2010, the average finish was among the best of his career.

Menard isn’t going to win Richard Childress a Cup title, but what he will do in 2015 is what he has done for the last several years — give the team some strong finishes and bring good information to the table that can be used to help the organization move forward. Menard has the tendency to be a little streaky — he can reel off a string of top 10s followed by several mid-pack finishes — and overall, that’s not going to be championship material. Unlike his teammate Ryan Newman, Menard isn’t consistently strong enough to make a title run out of a season that doesn’t include a win.

That’s not to say Menard couldn’t have an outside chance at the Chase; however, it’s likely that he’ll need to win to do it, and the odds aren’t in his favor with just one Cup win to his name. He can be a threat at some tracks — 10 of his 13 top-10 finishes last season came at tracks 1.5 miles or longer — but it’s more likely that he’ll be more of a top-15 threat than a top-10 one. And with the field as stacked as it is, that’s not likely to make the cut.

In Menard’s favor are solid equipment and sponsorship. While RCR might be a step behind the biggest teams, it is still among the sport’s elite, and Menard has equipment that matches his talent — not something every driver enjoys. He’s in a stable position in part because of his family-owned sponsorship, but he’s not merely riding the coattails of his family legacy. Because of that stability, Menard doesn’t have to look over his shoulder to see if a youngster with money is waiting in the wings, and he’s a solid enough performer that he’s an asset to RCR because of the information he can bring to the table.

His crew chief is a question mark for 2015. Justin Alexander took over head wrench duties after Slugger Labbe was promoted within the RCR organization. Alexander certainly has the credentials to be a successful crew chief, and Menard did post a top-5 finish during Alexander’s five-race test run in 2014, but this duo hasn’t been together long enough to be properly evaluated. Technology, more than ever, makes an impact

these days, and Alexander’s experience could move the needle.

Overall, expect 2015 to be a solid season for Menard, who has proven to be a steady driver. The biggest factor against him is probably the depth of competition in Sprint Cup right now. He’s capable of solid finishes, but so are many others, and that makes it unlikely that he will enjoy a season that exceeds expectations. He’ll put together some good runs, keep his cars in one piece and bring his team information it can use. All good things for a mid-tier driver like Menard.

James Dolan is not the best — everybody knows that. The New York Knicks’ owner has a reputation for meddling and spreading dysfunction throughout his organization; even new team president Phil Jackson is not safe from his wrath.

Weeks ago, it came out that Dolan reportedly lowballed potential coaching candidate Steve Kerr — now thriving with the Golden State Warriors — because Kerr did too much prying research into the Knicks’ infrastructure. This sin caused an old-school fan to lose his cool, and e-mail Dolan his piece of mind. Via Deadspin:

Subject: I have been a knicks fan since 1952

At one stage I thought that you did a wonderful thing when you acquired EVERYTHING from your dad. However, since then it has been ALL DOWN HILL. Your working with Isaiah Thomas & everything else regarding the Knicks. Bringing on Phil Jackson was a positive beginning, but lowballing Steve Kerr was a DISGRACE to the knicks. The bottom line is that you merely continued to interfere with the franchise.

As a knicks fan for in excess of 60 years, I am utterly embarrassed by your dealings with the Knicks. Sell them so their fans can at least look forward to growing them in a positive direction Obviously, money IS NOT THE ONLY THING. You have done a lot of utterly STUPID business things with the franchise. Please NO MORE.

Fans are emotional, so this letter comes as no surprise. The catch here is Dolan’s shockingly petty response:

Mr BiermanYou are a sad person. Why would anybody write such a hateful letter. I am.just guessing but ill bet your life is a mess and you are a hateful mess. What have you done that anyone would consider positive or nice. I am betting nothing. In fact ill bet you are negative force in everyone who comes in contact with you. You most likely have made your family miserable. Alcoholic maybe. I just celebrated my 21 year anniversary of sobriety. You should try it. Maybe it will help you become a person that folks would like to have around. In the mean while start rooting.for the Nets because the Knicks dont want you.

RespectfullyJames Dolan

If you’re not sick of laughing at Dolan after that, just take a listen to his comically corny blues band, JD and the Straight Shot: